Daily Manna · Day 11 · January 11
Expected End
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
You want the steps laid out in order, with dates printed on them.
The letter this verse sits inside does give you that, though you may not like it. "Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens." Marry and raise your families, right there in Babylon. "After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you" (29:5-10). God's thoughts of peace are real, and yet they do not make the exile one day shorter. So you were given dates after all, just not the ones you asked for. They run so long that the only sensible thing to do with them is plant something, and trust God for "an expected end."
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 11 is Able to Help (Hebrews 2:18).